Bitar charges 10 new suspects and summons Gracia Azzi and Asaad Tufaili

The lead judicial investigator in the Beirut port blast case, Judge Tarek al-Bitar on Thursday charged 10 new suspects in the case, who include port employees and current and former security officials, Al-Jadeed TV said.

The TV network identified the suspects as port employees Marwan Kaaki and Mohammad Qassabiyeh, the security official in charge of Hangar 12 Rabih Srour, Customs chief Brig. Gen. Raymond Khoury, Customs officer Brig. Gen. Adel Francis, General Security officer Brig. Gen. Najm al-Ahmadiyeh, former General Security officers Munah Sawaya and Mohammad Hassan Mouqalled, Lebanese Army brig. gen. Marwan Eid and former army intelligence chief brig. gen. Edmond Fadel.

Bitar also scheduled interrogation sessions for Higher Customs Council member Gracia Azzi and former Higher Customs Council chief Brig. Gen. Asaad Tufaili, Al-Jadeed added.

"The interrogation sessions will begin on February 7 and will be held over three phases during the months of March and April prior to the issuance of the indictment," Al-Jadeed said.

Bitar’s resumption of his investigations "had been decided on September 18 and was postponed due to the Israeli aggression and is not linked to the political transformations,” al-Jadeed has reported.

Legal sources have told al-Jadeed that they expect the suspects not to attend the interrogation sessions, speaking of “confusion at the Justice Palace in Beirut.”

According to media reports, a meeting was held days ago at the office of Higher Judicial Council chief Judge Suheil Abboud, in the presence of Bitar and State Prosecutor Jamal al-Hajjar, which tackled the case and the mechanism for summoning suspects to interrogation, ending in “the two parties’ (Bitar and Hajjar) insistence on their stances.”

The reports added that Bitar has decided to rely on judicial clerks in sending out the subpoenas rather on security agencies, which are under the authority of Hajjar.

Hajjar has refused to cooperate with Bitar, citing the “usurpation of power” lawsuit filed by Oueidat against the lead judge.

Bitar had postponed all interrogations in June 2023 due to the "lack of cooperation" from the prosecutor's office, without setting new dates.

"There are charges accusing me of usurping power that must be resolved," he said. If these charges "are proven, then I must be held to account, and if the contrary happens, then I must continue the investigation," Bitar argued at the time.

One of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions, the blast on August 4, 2020 destroyed much of Beirut port and surrounding areas, killing more than 215 people and injuring over 6,500.

Authorities said the mega-explosion was caused by a fire in a portside warehouse where a vast stockpile of the industrial chemical ammonium nitrate had been haphazardly stored for years.